If a CT could come to accept the "SBT," would he or she remain a CT?

[Tom Graves]

The nurse who helped to treat Connally, Nurse Audrey Bell, said the bullet fragments recovered from Connally's wrist alone were far more than is missing from the alleged SBT bullet, CE 399. She handled the fragments after they were removed from the governor's wrist. She specified that the fragments were not merely "flakes of metal" but were identifiable pieces of metal 3 to 4 millimeters in length by 2 millimeters wide. This squares with the recollection of one of Connally's other surgeons, Dr. Robert Shaw, who also saw the fragments. Interviewed for the award-winning 1988 documentary Reasonable Doubt: The Single-Bullet Theory, Shaw said, "I am sure that the bullet that inflicted these wounds on Governor Connally was fragmented much more than this bullet [CE  399] shows."

Griffith,

Dr. Charles Francis Gregory was the orthopedic surgeon who operated on Governor Connally's wrist.

Perhaps you've heard of him?

The following is an excerpt from his Warren Commission testimony:


Mr. Specter: Did you observe any foreign objects identifiable as bits of fragments or portions of a bullet missile, Dr. Gregory?

Dr. Gregory: A preliminary X-ray had indicated that there were metallic fragments or at least metallic fragments which cast metallic shadows in the soft tissues around the wounded forearm. Two or three of these were identified and were recovered and were observed to be metallic in consistency. These were turned over to appropriate authorities for further disposition.

Mr. Specter: Approximately how large were those fragments, Dr. Gregory?

Dr. Gregory: I would judge that they were first -- flat, rather thin, and that their greatest dimension would probably not exceed 1/8 of an inch. They were very small.

[...]

Mr. Specter: For the purpose of this consideration, I am interested to know whether the metal which you found in the wrist was of sufficient size so that the bullet which passed through the wrist could not have emerged virtually completely intact, or with 158 grains intact, or whether the portions of the metallic fragments were so small that that would be consistent with having virtually the entire 6.5mm bullet emerge.

Dr. Gregory: Well, considering the small volume of metal as seen by X-ray, and the very small dimensions of the metal which was recovered, I think several such fragments could have been flaked off of a total missile mass without reducing its volume greatly. Now, just how much depends of course upon what the original missile weighed. In other words, on the basis of the metal left behind in Governor Connally's body, as far as I could tell the missile that struck it could be virtually intact, insofar as mass was concerned, but probably was distorted.

Mr. Specter: Would you have any idea at all as to what the fragments which you observed in the Governor's wrist might weigh, Doctor?

Dr. Gregory: No, not really, but it would have to have been very small -- very small.

[Jake Maxwell]

The SBT actually functions like an IQ test...

7 wounds - breaking a rib, shattering a radius bone, leaving fragments in Connolly till his death... exiting near pristine... taking a somewhat circuitous path to do this?

It's all a contrived hoax to do exactly what Hoover wanted it to do... pin the dirty deed on one person, Oswald...

Who believes this sort of thing?

Yeah, it's an IQ test...

IQ test results:

🧠  IQ 85 and Below — "Commission Cultist"
Believes the Single Bullet Theory (SBT) and thinks the bullet might have acted alone.
Has framed posters of Arlen Specter and J. Edgar Hoover above the bed — right next to the Tooth Fairy shrine.
Calls anyone who questions the Warren Report a “Putin puppet” or “conspiracy nut.”
Considers schoolyard name-calling a valid debate strategy.
Believes magic is a valid branch of physics — especially when it serves the narrative.

🧠 IQ 86–110 — "Doubting Dave"
Scratches head at the SBT, wondering how a bullet can bend without a wand.
Suspects the Warren Commission was more about PR than truth.
Knows Arlen Specter was Hoover’s obedient water boy.
Doesn’t believe in magic — or coincidence on that scale.
Still watches History Channel reruns but with increasing side-eye.

🧠 IQ 111–139 — "The Informed Skeptic"
Thoroughly rejects the SBT — and probably Specter’s haircut.
Sees the Warren Report as damage control, not disclosure.
Believes Hoover loathed Kennedy, and Specter helped bury the truth.
Doesn’t believe in fairy tales — or government objectivity.
Open to new evidence and keeps a mental file titled: Things That Don’t Add Up Since ’63.

🧠 IQ 140 and Above — "Knows Where the Bodies Are Buried"
Understands the SBT was a political tool to wrap it up with one scapegoat.
Recognizes the real motive: protect the guilty, not inform the public.
Has a filing cabinet of declassified documents, a laser pointer, and a healthy skepticism.
Refers to the Warren Commission as The Original Misinformation Machine.
Has come to love the truth and fight for justice.

[Tom Graves]

[...]

Dear Jake "Eagle Eye" Maxwell,

What's the matter with you?

-- Tom

[Jake Maxwell]

It's interesting to note that the one person, perhaps closest to the event, did not believe in the SBT... Here's a summary from Google:

John Connally did not believe the magic bullet theory, also known as the single-bullet theory, was accurate. He and his wife, Nellie, consistently stated that he was struck by a separate bullet after President Kennedy was hit. Furthermore, the [some] physicians who treated Connally's wounds also did not believe they were caused by the same bullet that injured Kennedy, according to The New York Times.
The single-bullet theory, a key component of the Warren Commission's findings, proposed that one bullet caused multiple non-fatal wounds to both President Kennedy and Governor Connally. The Commission acknowledged a difference of opinion on this theory among its members, according to Wikipedia....
Connally's rejection of the theory is significant because it undermines the Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. The timing of the shots, as determined by the Zapruder film, is crucial to the theory. If Connally was hit by a separate bullet, it would have been impossible for Oswald to have fired all the shots from his rifle within the time frame estimated by the commission.

[Tom Graves]

[...]

Dear Jake,

I hope you don't mind my changing your nickname from "Eagle Eye" to "Mister Magoo."

-- Tom

[Mitch Todd]

Those who accept the SBT are the ones who are wearing tinfoil hats. You need some kind of mind-altering hat to cause you to accept such a patently absurd and thoroughly refuted theory as the SBT.

The only forensic engineering and digital reconstruction firm that has analyzed the SBT trajectories, the prestigious Knott Laboratory, has proved the theory is impossible by proving that JFK and Connally were not aligned in a way that would make the proposed double hit feasible. The Knott SBT trajectory analysis dwarfs all previous analyses in sophistication and data volume. For those who have not heard about the Knott Lab SBT trajectory analysis, here's a link about it:

https://knottlab.com/blog/knott-lab-uses-forensic-science-to-refute-warren-commission-findings-on-jfk-assassination/

The man who supposedly received the final five SBT wounds, Gov. John Connally, categorically rejected the idea that he was hit before Z229 and chose Z234 as the moment of impact. Connally's surgeons, after reviewing Connally's actions frame by frame, concluded he was hit between Z234 and Z237.

The nurse who helped to treat Connally, Nurse Audrey Bell, said the bullet fragments recovered from Connally's wrist alone were far more than is missing from the alleged SBT bullet, CE 399. She handled the fragments after they were removed from the governor's wrist. She specified that the fragments were not merely "flakes of metal" but were identifiable pieces of metal 3 to 4 millimeters in length by 2 millimeters wide. This squares with the recollection of one of Connally's other surgeons, Dr. Robert Shaw, who also saw the fragments. Interviewed for the award-winning 1988 documentary Reasonable Doubt: The Single-Bullet Theory, Shaw said, "I am sure that the bullet that inflicted these wounds on Governor Connally was fragmented much more than this bullet [CE  399] shows."

No genuine wound ballistics test has duplicated CE 399's mythical performance, and there is no case documented in forensic literature where a bullet emerged with virtually all of its substance and with its lands and grooves intact after penetrating seven layers of human skin, penetrating 10 layers of fabric, and smashing two bones (one of them the hard distal radius bone).

The hard physical evidence of the JFK clothing holes alone refutes the SBT and proves the back wound was well below the throat wound. The photos of the front of JFK's shirt prove that the alleged exit hole in the shirt was actually two slits that were obviously below the level of the tie knot and were cut by a scalpel, which explains why there is no fabric missing from them.

The released photos of JFK's tie refute the SBT. They prove there was no hole through the tie knot but only a slight nick on the left edge, a nick almost certainly caused by one of the doctors or nurses who were hurriedly cutting away JFK's clothing. One of the nurses confirmed this to researcher Henry Hurt.

The first FBI lab reports on JFK's clothing noted that no metallic traces were found around the slits. Metallic traces were found around the holes in the back of JFK's coat and shirt, but not around the slits beneath the collar. The lab reports said that the holes in JFK's coat and shirt were submitted to both X-ray and spectrographic analysis, that metallic traces (copper) were found around the edges of the rear holes, and that no metallic traces were found in the fabric around the slits below the collar. That's because no bullet exited those slits.

We now know from ARRB-released autopsy files that on the night of the autopsy, the autopsy doctors were positively, absolutely, completely, totally certain that the back wound had no exit point, that they established this by extensive and repeated probing and even removed the chest organs to facilitate and fully observe the probing. Medical technicians could see the end of the probe pushing up against the stomach lining well below the throat wound. We know that the first draft of the autopsy report said the throat wound was caused by a fragment from a bullet that hit the head. 

We also now know, again thanks to ARRB-released files, that on the night of the autopsy, when Kennedy’s body was prepared for burial, the mortician noticed three tiny holes in JFK's right cheek. The holes had to be filled because embalming fluid was leaking from them. The most likely explanation for the holes is that they were made by tiny fragments of glass that were blown toward Kennedy when a bullet went through the front windshield. If they were not made by glass fragments, they must have been made by small bullet fragments that sprayed toward JFK's face when the bullet penetrated the windshield. Lone-gunman theorists have simply ignored this explosive revelation in the ARRB materials because their scenario has no way to explain those wounds.

The Zapruder film, as the HSCA's photographic evidence panel acknowledged to their credit, proves that JFK was hit at or just before Z190. The evidence of this hit is self-evident and undeniable, unless one is pathologically committed to believing in the SBT.

Scientific review of the NAA evidence has debunked the claim that NAA supports the SBT. It does not.

SBT peddlers have no rational explanation for JFK's dramatic shot reaction in Z226-232, when his upper body is suddenly jolted forward and his hands and elbows are flung upward and forward--and this is after he has already been clearly reacting to the Z186-190 shot. It is nothing short of astonishing that SBTers refuse to acknowledge these plainly visible facts.

And on and on and on we could go.

MG: The only forensic engineering and digital reconstruction firm that has analyzed the SBT trajectories, the prestigious Knott Laboratory ...The Knott SBT trajectory analysis dwarfs all previous analyses in sophistication and data volume

Not true. Failure Analysis Associates was (and still is, under the name Exponent) performed a trajectory study in 1994 for the ABA mock trial. It was scientifically superior to the amateurish, half-finished mess that KL did. At the very least, FaAA understood that they needed to account for uncertainties in the exact position of the bodies and the locations of the wounds. The only way that the KL study surpassed the others is in the sheer volume of data. But that's because of the tool they used to get topographic data; the great majority of the data generated is useless to this particular task.


MG: The man who supposedly received the final five SBT wounds, Gov. John Connally, categorically rejected the idea that he was hit before Z229 and chose Z234 as the moment of impact. Connally's surgeons, after reviewing Connally's actions frame by frame, concluded he was hit between Z234 and Z237.

Basically, you're arguing that Connally thought that he was hit about a half second or less after the lapel flip. It's foolish to demand that his memory was split-second accurate, especially after he lost so much blood and being subject to the fairly intense anesthesia that a thorachotomy would require. Shaw and Gregory had no training or expertise in how to identify when someone was shot merely by watching frames from a silent film, thus there's no reason to rely on their judgements on the matter.


MG: The nurse who helped to treat Connally, Nurse Audrey Bell, said the bullet fragments recovered from Connally's wrist alone were far more than is missing from the alleged SBT bullet, CE 399. [...] This squares with the recollection of one of Connally's other surgeons, Dr. Robert Shaw, who also saw the fragments.

These accounts were made decades after the fact, and as such cannot supercede what Gregory's much fresher 1963/'64 memory. Further, the wrist x-rays show that the total fragments of the wrist are smaller than Bell's later recollections.


MG: No genuine wound ballistics test has duplicated CE 399's mythical performance, and there is no case documented in forensic literature where a bullet emerged with virtually all of its substance and with its lands and grooves intact after penetrating seven layers of human skin, penetrating 10 layers of fabric, and smashing two bones (one of them the hard distal radius bone).

Exactly how many cases in forensic literature are there "where a bullet emerged with virtually all of its substance and with its lands and grooves intact after penetrating seven layers of human skin, penetrating 10 layers of fabric, and smashing two bones (one of them the hard distal radius bone)" I figure the number is exactly one.


MG: The hard physical evidence of the JFK clothing holes alone refutes the SBT and proves the back wound was well below the throat wound. The photos of the front of JFK's shirt prove that the alleged exit hole in the shirt was actually two slits that were obviously below the level of the tie knot and were cut by a scalpel, which explains why there is no fabric missing from them.

About 30 years ago, I used to bother any medical personnel I could corner about a number of of issues regarding the JFK case. One of the things I got out of it is that Hospital staff do not use scalpels to cut away clothing. Instead, they used bandage scissors and trauma shears, tools designed specifically to cut through cloth held next to the body without causing any injuries in the process. They were quite adamant about this. That being said, if you look carefully at the "slits" in a good photo, you'll see that they are tears, not cuts. If you look at the autopsy photos, especially the left lateral view, it is cleraly below where the top of the collar would sit.
Wether or not the wound was an entrance or an exit, there must be a corresponding defect in the shirt. If it was an entry, it would be a hole, since the fabric would be sheared off at the margins on the bullet hole, just like the defects on the back fo the shirt and coat. Only an exit would leave slitlike tears, where the fabric fails in tension.


MG: The first FBI lab reports on JFK's clothing noted that no metallic traces were found around the slits. Metallic traces were found around the holes in the back of JFK's coat and shirt, but not around the slits beneath the collar. The lab reports said that the holes in JFK's coat and shirt were submitted to both X-ray and spectrographic analysis, that metallic traces (copper) were found around the edges of the rear holes, and that no metallic traces were found in the fabric around the slits below the collar. That's because no bullet exited those slits.

Why would you insist that bullet would necessarily have to leave traces of metal? In an exit wound, bullet pushes the skin and tissue in front of it, and pulls forward the tissues adjacent to eith side through friction. In a shored exit wound, the skin and tissue at the exit site are pushed forward into the fabric, which is trong enough to prevent the skin from tearing. The skin and underlying tissues do not begin to fail structually and tear until the overlying fabric tears enough to allow it.
But the skin immediately adjacent to the bullet is still moving forward with the projectile. The upshot of this is that the skin around the exit site is likely to momentarily be pulled through the tear in the overlying fabric as the bullet exits. After the bullet is completely out, the skin snaps back. The end result is that the bullet may not ever make direct contact with the fabric at the exit site.


MG: We now know from ARRB-released autopsy files that on the night of the autopsy, the autopsy doctors were positively, absolutely, completely, totally certain that the back wound had no exit point, that they established this by extensive and repeated probing and even removed the chest organs to facilitate and fully observe the probing. Medical technicians could see the end of the probe pushing up against the stomach lining well below the throat wound. We know that the first draft of the autopsy report said the throat wound was caused by a fragment from a bullet that hit the head.

In their ARRB testimony, the autopsists said that they did suspect that the bullet may have exited the throat wound.

This is Humes:

"My problem is, very simply stated, we had an entrance wound high in the posterior back above the scapula. We didn't know where the exit wound was at that point. I'd be the first one to admit it. We knew in general in the past that we should have been more prescient than we were, I must confess, because when we removed the breast plate and examined the thoracic cavity, we saw a contusion on the upper lobe of the lung. There was no defect in the pleura anyplace. So it's obvious that the missile had gone over that top of the lung. Of course, the more I thought about it, the more I realized it had to go out from the neck.

"It was the only place it could go, after it was not found anywhere in the X-rays. So early the next morning, I called Parkland Hospital and talked with Malcolm Perry, I guess it was. And he said, Oh, yeah, there was a wound right in the middle of the neck by the tie, and we used that for the tracheotomy. Well, they obliterated, literally obliterated--when we went back to the photographs, we thought we might have seen some indication of the edge of that wound in the gaping skin where the--but it wouldn't make a great deal of sense to go slashing open the neck. What would we learn?"

This is Boswell:

"Q. When you referred to the wound in the anterior neck, what was your first impression as to what that wound was?

"A. I'm not sure what our first impression-- oh, we thought that they had done a tracheostomy, and whether or not that was a bullet wound, we weren't sure, initially. It was after we found an entrance wound and then the blood external to the pleura that we had a track, and that proved to be the exit wound; but it was so distorted by the incision, initially we just assumed it to be a tracheostomy.

"Q. Did you reach the conclusion that there had been a transit wound through the neck during the course of the autopsy itself?

"A. Oh, yes."

Finck's memory of the night are a bit different, but notice that his answer contradicts the idea that they thought the bullet could not have transited.

"We examined the wounds and there were questions answered following the autopsy. It was clear that there was a wound of entry in the upper back, but it is, thanks to Dr. Humes, that next morning he found out there was a wound in the front of the neck. At the time of the autopsy, we did not see the exit in the front of the neck. For the
head it was clear, but for the neck it was not. So this was clarified the next day.

"So to answer your question, at the time the autopsy was completed, there was still no answer. It shows once more that you have to wait for certain things to be put together."

If they thought the bullet had not transited, then why did Humes ask Perry about the tracheostomy the next morning?

MG: We also now know, again thanks to ARRB-released files, that on the night of the autopsy, when Kennedy’s body was prepared for burial, the mortician noticed three tiny holes in JFK's right cheek. The holes had to be filled because embalming fluid was leaking from them.

That is Tom Robinson's ARRB version. He earlier told the HSCA that there was a large wound at the back of the head, a small irregular wound in the hairline of the right temple, and nothing else. The autopsy photos show no small wounds to the face, nor are any such injuries mentioned in the Sibert and O'Neil report. No other witnesses described such injuries to JFK's face.

MG: The Zapruder film, as the HSCA's photographic evidence panel acknowledged to their credit, proves that JFK was hit at or just before Z190. The evidence of this hit is self-evident and undeniable, unless one is pathologically committed to believing in the SBT.

So, as proof of your contention that Kennedy was hit just before Z190, you offer only tautology, well-poisoning, and an argument by authority where the authorities aren't
actually authorities on the subject at hand?   

[Michael T. Griffith]

MG: The only forensic engineering and digital reconstruction firm that has analyzed the SBT trajectories, the prestigious Knott Laboratory ...The Knott SBT trajectory analysis dwarfs all previous analyses in sophistication and data volume

Not true. Failure Analysis Associates was (and still is, under the name Exponent) performed a trajectory study in 1994 for the ABA mock trial. It was scientifically superior to the amateurish, half-finished mess that KL did.

This is laughable nonsense. If Knott Lab's study had confirmed the SBT, we both know you'd be singing a very different tune.

BTW, Dr. Robert Piziali, who oversaw the Failure Analysis study, admitted under cross-examination that JFK's Z225 reaction proves he could not have been hit later than Z221.   

At the very least, FaAA understood that they needed to account for uncertainties in the exact position of the bodies and the locations of the wounds. The only way that the KL study surpassed the others is in the sheer volume of data. But that's because of the tool they used to get topographic data; the great majority of the data generated is useless to this particular task.

This is just so much nonsense. FYI, the amount of data is crucial in any trajectory analysis. The Knott Lab study was far more sophisticated than the Failure Analysis study on several counts, starting with the fact that Knott did a laser survey of Dealey Plaza and constructed an exact digital replica of the plaza. That's kind of, sort of, important for any trajectory analysis of the SBT, don't you think? The technology to create that replica didn't even exist in 1994.

Knott Lab focused on the key, crucial issue of JFK's and Connally's positions. They were aware of the questions about the location of JFK's back wound, but they proved that no matter which location you choose, JFK and JBC were not aligned with a trajectory that traces from Connally's chest exit wound through his back wound and back through JFK's throat wound and back to the sixth-floor window. It just doesn't work.

Folks, the smears and disinformation coming from Todd and WC apologists about the Knott Lab SBT study is really misleading and unserious.

[Jack Nessan]

This is laughable nonsense. If Knott Lab's study had confirmed the SBT, we both know you'd be singing a very different tune.

BTW, Dr. Robert Piziali, who oversaw the Failure Analysis study, admitted under cross-examination that JFK's Z224-225 reaction proves he could not have been hit later than Z220.   

This is just so much nonsense. FYI, the amount of data is crucial in any trajectory analysis. The Knott Lab study was far more sophisticated than the Failure Analysis study on several counts, starting with the fact that Knott did a laser survey of Dealey Plaza and constructed an exact digital replica of the plaza. That's kind of, sort of, important for any trajectory analysis of the SBT, don't you think? The technology to create that replica didn't even exist in 1994.

Knott Lab focused on the key, crucial issue of JFK's and Connally's positions. They were aware of the questions about the location of JFK's back wound, but they proved that no matter which location you choose, JFK and JBC were not aligned with a trajectory that traces from Connally's chest exit wound through his back wound and back through JFK's throat wound and back to the sixth-floor window. It just doesn't work.

Folks, the smears and disinformation coming from Todd and WC apologists about the Knott Lab SBT study is really misleading and unserious.

MG--    "If Knott Lab's study had confirmed the SBT"

Then Knotts Lab would not have made such fools of themselves. I thought you stated how competent they were. What happened that they came up with the useless crap that they did?